Abstract: This descriptive and correlational research studies 15,658 students from 335 secondary schools in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, through the results of the examination of admission to high school education (National High School Admission Test – EXANI I from the National Assessment Center for Education – CENEVAL) on logical-mathematical and verbal reasoning, mathematics and Spanish, comparing along the variables of sex, system (public or private), type of school of origin (there are seven types) and ranking of grades, with which, the main objective is to identify levels of institutional competitiveness. The main findings of the research were: (i) private schools, in comparison with public ones, showed percentages of more favorable grades (60.54 and 43.58 respectively); (ii) influence of the academic average of the students in the result of the examination of admission (correlation of .0403; (iii) greater competence in the area of ​​verbal reasoning (56.47) compared to logical-mathematical reasoning (55.69); and (iv) the identification of a small number of secondary schools considered as having sufficient institutional competitiveness (11 schools, equivalent to 3.28% of the total).

From Caracas to Lyon: A road toward sustainable development?Further expanding on topics around public libraries (and as a sister issue to a previous column), together with Renny Granda we ask if the Caracas Declaration for the Public Library (1982) and the Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development (2014) can allow us to follow a path toward s […]

Scientific production in Mexican universities: Rates and expectations toward competitiveness Together with Javier Tarango, we analyze issues of scientific production in Mexican universities. Abstract: This article analyzes emerging issues that Mexican universities are experiencing with scientific production processes, their impact on assessment indicators th […]

Latin American science is meant to be open access: Initiatives and current challenges Together with Dominique Babini, we summarize the rise of open access in the region and its main initiatives. Abstract: Latin American open access (OA) initiatives were built upon the foundations laid by the regional cooperative information networks, databases and indexes th […]

Thinking outside of literacy: Moving beyond traditional information literacy activities Abstract: A brief reflection on what might be becoming the traditional way of conducting information and digital literacy activities, together with some recommendations in order to move beyond these traditional grounds. This reflection is framed within this age of social […]

Developing Latin America: Is information enough to save the region? Abstract:Latin America does not exist. These 42 diverse and developing countries are hardly a union. However, they share geographical proximity, history, strangely unique elements, and the wish to progress. This first issue of a new column, ‘Developing Latin America’, explores some informati […]

Articles for the European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL) http://wp.me/s7eWr-ecil2013 The first European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL) took place on 22-25 October 2013, in Istambul, Turkey. I proposed two papers for this conference and I had the opportunity to get both accepted. It was great to have two papers selected among the quite i […]